


Heart of the Matter

by Merfilly



Series: Avenged, Annealed, and Atoned [6]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Established Relationship, Multi, Polyamory, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-17
Updated: 2013-02-17
Packaged: 2017-11-29 13:50:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/687695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which our intrepid Agent Coulson is set upon by his two other Agents. And then he gets to talk with Steve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heart of the Matter

Debriefing of the incoming team had gone smoothly, and once the day was over, Coulson hung back to see if his pair of agents were in the mood for 'social skill practice'. They made that rather clear when they fell in on either side of him in the hallway, herding him in the direction they wanted to go. He let it happen, tension sliding out of him at the thought of their particular choices for social skill practice.

`~`~`~`~`

He was completely pinned, completely satiated, and completely okay with this turn of events. Clint was cuddled in one one shoulder while Natasha had staked her claim on his other side. Apparently the mission had left them little time for each other, or else they had just saved it up to unleash on Phil. He was pretty certain the colors he had seen behind his eyelids from that last orgasm were not meant to be viewed without high-tech lenses. It felt good to just lay there in a limp pile of vaguely human-shaped pleasurable sensation.

"Have you slept with him yet?"

Natasha's words brought his brain and body into full and complete opposition because the words made no sense -- and really weren't timed well -- as far as he was concerned.

"Excuse me?" he asked, falling back into his professionally polite mode.

Natasha looked as if she wanted to bite him, and he started twisting the shoulder under his cuddler... this evading the worst of the sharp teeth Clint bared on his shoulder.

"We all but gift wrapped him and stuck a bow on him for you," Clint pointed out, his voice a little annoyed, confirming that yes, indeed, they were asking him about _Captain America_!

"If you're going to waste all the intel work I put into this after Potts dropped the first clue in my lap," Natasha began, "we'll have to find some way to make it more patently obvious."

"You do have a birthday coming up. Maybe we can gift wrap him and stick a bow on certain..." Clint started in.

"Stop... please...." Phil managed to pull free enough of both the cuddles and the glaring, because Clint had not stopped using him as a body pillow, to sit up against the headboard. That way he could glare back at the pair of them with at least a shade more dignity.

Never mind that he was still very naked and they were being entirely too serious behind the playful tone of the words. Natasha was giving him the flat look of 'believe me' while Clint lazily leaned up on an elbow and shrugged the other shoulder. 

"Phil... you worship the ground he walks on. He plays both teams too. What's stopping you?"

"He's a member of the Initiative and I need to maintain..."

"Objectivity?" Natasha finished for him, before pointedly looking at herself, then Clint, then Phil and their state of undress.

"This is different?" Phil offered even as he looked slightly sheepish.

"Because we don't have powers?" Clint asked in a too-soft voice.

"That makes you even more than the rest of them," Phil immediately retaliated, feeling like he was on a sinking ship. That was _not_ something he wanted either of them thinking, not for even a heartbeat.

"And I bet he said the same words to you," Natasha said, scoring a direct hit on the complex knot in Phil's perceptions of himself and Steve.

"Something like that," Phil admitted. He shook his head. "It doesn't change that he's... himself."

"And he likes you." Clint reached up and tried to pull Phil back down into cuddle range. "He just can't have you all the time."

"Because you belong with us," Natasha said, adding her own encouragement to the efforts to get Phil back down between them. "We're just willing to share with him. He fits our team well."

Phil let himself be coaxed, still not complaining when Clint again plastered down the side of his body, and Natasha occupied the other half, hand curving over Clint's on the scar of Phil's chest.

It took time to unwind from just what his agents had told him enough that he could go to sleep, but eventually the soft sound of Clint's breathing and the warmth from both of them were enough to soothe his racing thoughts.

`~`~`~`~`

Phil was not certain this was the best plan. However, Natasha had briefed him thoroughly, and he was convinced that Cap... Steve had made his move, had it ignored in error, and was now waiting for a countermove.

Showing up with pizza and beer, just as Steve had done with him, seemed logical. If everything went according to his calculations, either Steve would be obvious, or Phil would know that his agents -- and Miss Potts -- were incorrect in their assessment. 

He'd barely had time to get the six pack back into his hand, having shoved it under an arm to ring the buzzer, before Steve was opening the door for him... with a smile.

"Movie night and Fury didn't send you to Timbuktu this week," Steve said, his voice genuinely happy.

"It was only an overnighter last week." Phil stepped past when Steve let him, and was promptly relieved of the pizza. 

Steve laughed a little at that as he headed for the kitchen. "Yes, but it was our night to hang out."

Phil tried not to read too much into that statement, getting the beers, save two, into the fridge for later. "I'm here now," he said instead, a cautious thread of 'if you want me' infecting the tone.

"Yeah, yeah you are," Steve answered that, having stopped in sliding pizza onto plates for both of them to look up and actually see Phil's face. It was fairly plain that he didn't actually miss the quick, nervous swallow, or the brief dilation of Phil's pupils. "And that matters to me."

"I appreciate that." Phil reached out to trade a beer for his pizza, but his eyes stayed on Steve's face, held by the open, genuine interest there.

"Good."

Phil opened his mouth... even as it crossed his mind that Natasha would drop him off a three-story building (maybe above an awning) for being so blatant before there was a need... and asked the million dollar question.

"Have you been hitting on me these past few weeks, Steve?"

Steve brought his beer up to his lips after twisting the cap off, slow and deliberate. His eyes were clear and a slight smile touched his lips before he sipped it. When he brought the bottle down again, he tipped his head a little to the side. 

"Yes."

"Do you know I am involved in an open-minded arrangement?"

"I even know there's a cellist in Seattle," Steve told him. "Pepper talks. A lot."

"And...."

"And what? It's not like I'm asking you to marry me, Phil. Just... what was the term I heard Maria say? 'Friends with benefits'?" The former soldier headed toward the living room. "Come on, pizza's getting cold, beer's getting warm, and there's a Bette Davis movie on."

Phil could hardly argue with that, and now that he had concrete intel to work with, it sounded perfectly fine. Somehow, he didn't think they'd wind up sleeping on the couch in separate corners tonight.

Maybe, just maybe, that was good enough to run with.


End file.
